Exactly one week ago, we told you about the 9 Chinese who flew into Belize from Cuba without a visa. They never should have been allowed on the plane...but they were; and when they got here, they should have been sent back immediately, but they weren’t. A series of curious slip-ups and now there’s one more. As we reported, the eight men and one woman were remanded to prison for a week on the assurance that they would be sent right back to Cuba when the flight returned yesterday. But, again, they weren’t.
It might not seem so odd to the outsider, but those with experience in how these things work, say that kind of slippage has been typical – as the illegals are often kept lurking in the system until attention subsides and some conspicuous oversight or deliberately corrupt act, allows them to slip out of custody or get out on bail, and then they’re off, headed north. And something’s definitely up with this group as now the story is that they had visas when they boarded the plane in Cuba – mind you, they were fake ones - but tore them out of their passports once they got on the plane.
Our sources that the deal was that when they got to Belize some official was supposed to facilitate them, and that would be the end of that, they would be free to move. Seems that even the top brass of the Immigration Department suspects that something is afoot as it has reportedly removed staffers who were on duty at the airport that day from the rotation.
But now what will happen with the Chinese? Well today a senior staffer in the Ministry of National Security confirmed that they were simply held longer as part of the investigation – to see if they can find out what was their local connect and how they got the fake visas in Cuba. That source tells us that they will be flown out on next week’s flight along with thirteen Cuban’s who were found out at Turneffe. We’ll keep watching it, closely.
